I was wondering if anyone has any luck composting in the winter as well. Its been in the -20's here at night for the past three weeks, and my whole compost pile is frozen solid. I know it will be fine when it thaws, but I can't even turn it now. I keep throwing my kitchen waste out there, and some of the wildlife has been nibbling at it, so at least its helping something.
If anyone else is composting in really cold temps, I would love to hear any ideas you have for keeping the pile warm. Lining it with straw isn't enough for here, as I've done that already.
Hope your having some luck with yours Moon!

I had the same problem...

I just started a compost bin last fall and added some red wiggler worms for good measure--I was happy when it started getting warm, and I added kitchen scraps and turned it pretty regularly. But when it started getting really cold and snowy in the winter, I stopped going out to dump scraps--so when I went out a few weeks ago to check it, it was frozen solid!

I felt awful about failing to maintain a good balance that would keep it heated, but even worse that I probably killed a few thousand hard-workin' worms. But a few days after adding a lot of coffee grounds and kitchen waste, it was heating up nicely again, and I noticed a few worms in there (maybe the core was still warm?).

I didn't think compost could freeze!
What's the best way to keep it going in a northeast winter?

I live in northern British Columbia and it is not uncommon for it to be -40F here in the winter. Then I have the crux of having grizzly bears and black bears here for the other 6 months. I was a COMPULSIVE composter in Oregon before I moved here and I still am.. but I have to go about it differently now that I am North of 53.

When I first got here, I composted like I did in Oregon and had 3 bins going. Then I found out that in July, the ground was still FROZEN SOLID under the compost piles for 4 feet down. Seriously. At our winter temperatures there is no way the piles can hold or generate enough heat. At times we are colder than interior Alaska. So then I tried again when we moved to our 40 acre homestead. I made sure that the compost get moved 3-4 weeks before the ground was workable so that I did not have ice patches in the garden. Then the bears made their presence known. And we found we had a neo-natal black bear den on our property, so we had to re-think how to do this as we were generating 2.5 pounds of compostable items a day. We also do not have garbage service where we live, and also being earth-friendly in this household, we try to reduce our garbage as much as possible. .

So.. since we basically live in the animals area, as we live in the bush, it is not fair to push them out of their homes. And we figured we could work out a deal. So for 6 months of the year, we now rot our 'compost'. We toss it out into different areas on our 3,500 sf garden. The freezing makes the 'compostable items' break down quickly and feed the soil, which is then tilled into the soil when the garden is workable in late May (we have snow on the ground very often until then, even right now it is 3 feet still in spots). Then 6 months of the year that the bears are lurking about, we feed the compost to the pigs and then their manure is spread on the rest of the land (as I do not want it in the garden) to fertilize.

I need to start a worm bin again. I had one when I lived in the apartment and then when I moved to our 'temporary home', someone thought they would freeze, put them in the greenhouse and the poor beggers cooked. Maybe they would like it in the root cellar?

tenzicut
www.downtotherootsmagazine.com

verma composting. my new pet worms live in a bin in a closet and consume half their weight a day of compost, worm castings are a main ingredient in most good organic soil mixes you can buy. In urban areas we do not want to attract rats with food that freezes in the snow. thanks